This week I’d like to talk a little about writing. I was inspired to write this after watching TCM (Turner Classic Movie channel) when a snippet of an interview with Alfred Hitchcock came on, the one in which he talks about a plot device called a MacGuffin: some object or emotion that the hero or heroine lacks or is searching for. It’s something vital to the characters but other than a brief explanation, little or no detail is really needed as to why it’s so important. The key is that the audience doesn’t really care so long as it makes sense on the surface; they want to enjoy the ride along the way.
Examples:
In his interview, Hitchcock used the uranium cache in his movie Notorious. What everyone really cares about is the dangerous and yet romantic triangle that develops between Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant and Claude Rains when Grant recruits Bergman to infiltrate a spy ring with former acquaintance Rains. Evil Nazi Spies are after uranium to build an atom bomb, but who really cares? What keeps the eyes glued to the screen is Bergman’s increasing danger of being found out and Grant’s increasing concern for her.
Legendary artifacts can be MacGuffins, too, and have been used in movies like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade or the ark of the covenant in a later movie, or even Monty Python and the Holy Grail. These characters could be chasing just about anything—the audience doesn’t really care, except they know whatever it is, it’s important to the people they’re cheering on—and to the villain in the way.
MacGuffins aren’t always tangible. They can be emotion, too—such as approval or pride or power, even survival. In survival stories what the audience is looking for is how the protagonists meet their challenge and what it takes to get there. Remember the old Perils of Pauline stories? According to Wikipedia, Pearl White who starred in those short silent films called these kinds of devices weenies—anything of value to the world (or at least to Pauline) that inspired a villain to go after her. It was the perilous journey the audience wanted to see, and so long as whatever stood in the way made a bit of sense, that was all it took for a satisfying story.
MacGuffins are probably best known for use in movies, perhaps most often in thrillers or mysteries because it was Hitchcock who made the term famous. In a thriller or mystery, we know the good guy will face a daunting challenge but will win out in the end. But MacGuffins easily work in romantic fiction. In a romance, we know the hero and heroine are right for each other but to get to that conclusion they must overcome obstacles in their way. The audience cares more about the romantic journey than the intricacies beneath those obstacles.
As a writer, it can be easy to get caught up in MacGuffins, especially if you’re the type of person who likes understanding and explaining details. But it’s important to remember the audience cares more about the genre (the danger in a thriller or the growing emotion in a romance) than things that can side-track their attention almost to the point of annoyance. While MacGuffins must make sense, such as knowing how dangerous it would be if Nazi spies actually got hold of that uranium, we don’t need to know how uranium works in a bomb, where it came from, or exactly how the bad guys would use it.
Just one more element of writing that needs to be carefully balanced!
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